Table of Contents: Migration & Health Collection

COVER

Image Credit: Simon Monk at Flickr

In May and June 2011, PLoS Medicine publishes a commissioned six-part series on migration and health. If internal and international migrants comprised a nation, it would be the third most populous country in the world, just after China and India. Thus, there can be little doubt that population mobility is among the leading policy issues of the 21st century. However, policies to protect migrants and global health have so far been hampered by inadequate policy attention and poor international coordination. More coordination is needed across borders and policy sectors.

In the first article in the series, Cathy Zimmerman, Ligia Kiss, and Mazeda Hossain from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), United Kingdom, lay out a new framework that describes migration as a multi-staged process involving numerous health risks and intervention opportunities. This migration-health framework benefits international and local policy-makers by highlighting various points for intervention and options for coordination between nations. Five subsequent articles in the series discuss in-depth the health impacts and policy needs associated with the five phases of this migratory process: pre-departure, travel, destination, interception, and return.

In an editorial published at the end of the series, the PLoS Medicine Editors highlight one particularly troubling aspect of migration—sex trafficking—and what needs to be done to address it.